Putting AMBEserver on the Internet

If you have a low latency and responsive Internet connection, you can place an AMBEserver directly on the Internet and access it remotely through Buster, DummyRepeater, or any other program that provides AMBEserver connectivity.

Raspberry Pi with PiDV and ThumbDV

The first step is to connect a PiDV™ to the GPIO of a Raspberry Pi or a ThumbDV™ to the USB port of a computer which will run the AMBEserver. A Raspberry Pi is more than sufficient for this task and provides an economical platform for AMBEserver, however, the choice of computer is up to you. Follow the directions on this page (updated instructions on the wiki) for a Raspberry Pi build and configuration.

Once you have built your AMBEserver, verify that it is working with the included Python scripts, ‘ambesocktest.py’ will test the UDP socket, it returns the AMBE-3000 model number repetitively until killed (with control-C) if the daemon is functioning properly on port 2460.

On your local network, configure Buster or DummyRepeater to access the AMBEserver on the LAN IP address of your AMBEserver. When you have a working AMBEserver, then it is time to make it available outside your LAN.

Buster Preferences for AMBEserver

DummyRepeater Preferences for AMBEserver

Since there are a variety of routers/firewalls/modems that connect you to your ISP it is beyond the scope of this article to provide specific instructions, but all that is required is to forward an external port (default 2460) on your public IP to the LAN IP address of your AMBEserver (e.g. 192.168.0.5) at the designated port (default 2460). You may want to choose a different UDP port in your AMBEserver and for your public facing IP address. If you use the same port for both, then you most likely can configure Buster or DummyRepeater once for use at home and away by using your public IP address (replace the LAN IP address or Localhost IP Address).

Now take your Buster or DummyRepeater system to a remote location and test accessing AMBEserver over the Internet using your public IP address.

Update: The PiDV is not currently in production. Check out BlueDV for Windows and BlueDV for Android at http://www.pa7lim.nl/bluedv — the latest BlueDV for Android can use AMBEserver.